SCRUM!

Myth: Scrum, not SCRUM!

Variations:

• What does "SCRUM" stand for?
• It was, is not, and never will be "SCRUM"

Category: General Scrum myths
Danger: Insignificant

The basis of the myth

There is no one tracible origin.

There are innumerable management philosophies and fads with acronyms. Pretty much every model has an acronym. Even stuff like Six Sigma  has acronyms for easy remembering, in that case: DMAIC. So, managers might naturally assume that SCRUM is also an acronym for something: But it's not. Scrum stands for Scrum, taken from rugby.

However, it's a myth that "SCRUM" is inaccurate. It's out of date, but it's not wrong.

Why is it a myth?

The original paper introducing Scrum at the OOPSLA conference 1995 clearly spelled "SCRUM".
This was later changed to "Scrum", possibly to end the bickering about the meaning of the acronym.

Consequences

The biggest harm of "SCRUM" is that there are still people out there wondering what the acronym stands for. Their ignorance reveals them. It's actually quite a simple matter.

Remedies

When someone insists on spelling "SCRUM" instead of Scrum, just let them know that they're about 20 years out of date and the world of development is moving on.

When they want to know what "SCRUM" stands for, let them know it's a term from Rugby, not some fancy management acronym.